I’m really excited to be a part of the PG
stable and I’m also looking forward to
sharing some ideas and thoughts I have about
playing the guitar with each of you. Please
feel free to write to me with any questions
you may have—anything that may need
clearing up, as well as ideas for future articles.

So now let’s get started with a piece I
composed several years ago, “The Small
Stuff.” Many folks have asked if I wrote
this and “Things Are Looking Up” since
my recovery from massive heart failure in
March of 2011. Actually, I wrote both of
these pieces many years ago.

“The Small Stuff ” contains several compositional
elements that really make a solo
guitar piece—a good groove, nice melody,
and a solid bass line with clear separation
from the melody. This separation of the
bass lines and melodies is one of the defining
aspects of my style. I really love to hear
them both very distinctly and I spend a lot
of time listening back to recordings before
I release anything because it all has to work
together and sound natural. Listen to the
bass lines in tunes like Steely Dan’s “Josie,”
the Jackson 5’s “I Want You Back,” or Stevie
Wonder’s “I Wish.” These are excellent
examples of what attracts me to music.

First things first. Let’s tune the 6th string
down a whole-step to D—an octave below
the 4th string. Now we’re ready. The intro,
shown in Fig. 1, is fairly simple (relatively
speaking, of course), but it’s a good way
to get into separating the bass from the
melody. Notice that the bass and the chords
never strike at the same time. I really think
of this as horns and bass, or keyboard and
bass. (The parts actually transfer well to
those instruments, if you’re inclined to give
it a try.) This is a good technique for developing
an uncluttered arrangement.

The first trick occurs in the second measure.
The 16th-note triplet with the “ghost”
note is hard to get in perfect time, so try
playing the phrase very, very slowly. Think
of your starting point (the and of beat 2)
and the ending point (beat 3) and make
sure those are lined up perfectly. Don’t
forget to mute the 5th string with your lefthand
index finger.

The next problem might be in the seventh
measure leading into the eighth measure.
The eighth-note on the and of beat 4
is a hammer-on from the open 3rd string
to the 2nd fret. The bass note strikes on
the downbeat of the next measure. So once
again, you’ll need to isolate this part and
practice it over and over until it feels natural.
About 30 minutes ought to do it.

The main body of the tune begins at
measure nine. Check out the bass line,
shown in Fig. 2. Try playing each individual
part along with the recording—bass line
first, then the melody. Isolating each part
and then slowly combining them is one
of the best ways to solidify a tune in your
head and see how each part fits together.

The real fun for me begins at measure
14, which you can see in Fig. 3. I
absolutely love the way the parts work
together here. And the A+7 on the last
beat just kills me! Don’t be scared by the
weird “+” symbol in this chord. We call
this chord an augmented 7, which is just a
basic dominant 7th chord with a #5. If it
weren’t on the last beat of the measure I’d
hold it out for another couple of beats—
just because.

My favorite type of modulation, or key
change, is moving up a minor third. I’ve
done it in a few of my tunes and I think I
picked it up from some of Larry Carlton’s
early albums. In measure 24, I set up the
key change with a Bb/C chord before walking
up chromatically into the new key. I
set up the new section with a short fourmeasure
part, which emulates the intro just
a little. You’ll notice that nasty 16th-note
triplet shows up again, but because you
have already worked that out, it’s not going
to be a problem. The end of measure 32
begins another cool interplay between the
bass and the melody, which you can see
in Fig. 4. We start with a typical F chord
before the melody moves chromatically into
an interesting turnaround that goes between
C7–Db9–C9–C7. This little half-step shake
is common in jazz tunes and the syncopated
rhythm between the bass and chords keeps
things interesting.

At the end of the F section, I use D as a
common tone to go from the B% to A7sus4
chord and ultimately back to the key of D.
Then we have a repeat of the first part of
the tune and it all ends on a big fat D9#11.

TIP: If you’ve got an old resonator guitar,
try this tune on it. The music takes on
a whole different personality ... kind of like
Mississippi Delta pop. Tune in next time
when we ask the perennial question: How
many licks does it take to get to the center
of a Tootsie Roll Tootsie Pop?

Winner of the 2000 National Fingerstyle Guitar Championship, Pete Huttlinger is one of the world’s most awe-inspiring acoustic guitarists. His unique arrangements, spellbinding musicality, and technical precision have entertained audiences from Los Angeles to Milan. Huttlinger has performed at three of Eric Clapton’s Crossroads Festivals and has released numerous albums, including the critically acclaimed Finger Picking Wonder: The Music of Stevie Wonder. Visit petehuttlinger.com for more information. Photo by Paul Schatzkin

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